Psychotherapist, Psychologist, Counsellor or Psychiatrist?

If in need of psychological support – whom to choose?

Many people use ‘Psychologist’, ‘Therapist’, ‘Counsellor’ and ‘Psychotherapist’ as interchangeable – and while there is overlap, they are not quite the same:

While all of these offer mental health support, Psychologists are often more geard to assessing mental health conditions and working in organisations or research. Many have never had any psychotherapy themselves and don’t have specialist training in the field. Psychologists who have an interest in providing therapy often refer to themselves as “Counselling Psychologists”.

Madeleine is a UK qualified and accredited Psychotherapist. This training is designed to enable the therapist to competently support their clients with Talking Therapy, as well as other techniques, through mental health crises, including Depression, Stress, Burn-out, Bereavement, Anxiety and relationship problems. (Madeleine has extra specialist training in Trauma counselling and ADHD). UKCP trained therapists have an in-depth training and will have undergone a thorough course of psychotherapy themselves during their training, so that their “stuff” does not get in the way of the treatment.

After all, would you want to take deep-sea-diving lessons from an instructor who has never dived themselves?
UKCP accredited psychotherapists are in continous supervision, insured and have to do a minimum of 50 hours of CPD to insure the very highest standards in their provision of pscyotherapy and counselling.

‘Therapist’ and ‘Counsellor’ are terms that are not regulated, so be aware that anyone can call themselves this. Nonetheless, given that a UK Psychotherapy qualification is not currently recognised in France, Madeleine is referring to herself here often as a ‘Counsellor’.

Further, some people are put off by the term psychotherapy, fearing, “I have to be really bad to need that, right?” – No, a qualified psychotherapist will offer counselling as well, it just means they have a more in-debth training, which is to your advantage.

So, what does a Psychiatrist do?

A psychiatrist specialises in giving diagnoses and prescribing medication, then usually referring patients on to a psychotherapist or counselling psychologist. If this is needed, Madeleine has contacts both in the UK and in France, so that you are in good hands.

Counselling Riviera provides Psychotherapy and Counselling for Monaco, the French Riviera, Nice, Cannes, and the Alpes Maritimes as well as by Skype world-wide.